MONTABAUR (dpa-AFX) - The telecommunications group 1&1 has started as the fourth German network operator on a small scale. A government expansion obligation of 1000 activated 5G stations by the end of 2022, however, the company from Montabaur in Rhineland-Palatinate has missed very significantly. According to a company release on Tuesday, three antenna sites in Frankfurt am Main and Karlsruhe are now in operation. Reception for cell phones on the move is not yet possible there. Only customers near the antennas can use the radio signals to get Internet in their homes - it is intended as an alternative to the fixed network.

1&1 first auctioned off frequency spectrum in 2019 to build its own cell phone network. Last September, 1&1 already admitted that the expansion requirement of 1,000 activated sites would not be reached by the end of 2022 and justified this with supply bottlenecks at an expansion partner. Now it is clear that this expansion target has been missed by miles.

However, the pace is set to pick up: 50 sites already completed in several cities are to be gradually put into operation, and 235 sites are currently under construction. The 1,000-site target is to be reached "in the course of the year."

It will still be a while before cell phone users can use 1&1 radio signals on the move for the first time: this should be possible from the fall. So far, there are three cell phone networks in Germany: from Deutsche Telekom, from Vodafone and from Telefónica with its O2 brand. 1&1 will remain closely linked to Telefónica in the future: Where the new network operator has no antennas, its customers are to be connected to the O2 network - for which the companies concluded a roaming agreement./wdw/DP/mis